Success Or Not, Israel's Top 3 Eye Summit As Campaign Booster
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Leslie Susser - November 26, 2007 - 12:54pm

By sending its top three leaders to the Annapolis peace summit, Israel is hoping to make a statement about the seriousness of its approach to peacemaking with the Palestinians. But a more complex reality lies under the surface of this diplomatic show. The big three -- Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni -- have much different notions about what can be achieved with the Palestinians and how best to go about it.

»

Obstacles And Opportunity For Mideast Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Boston Globe
by James Carroll - (Opinion) November 26, 2007 - 12:51pm

Obstacles abound. When representatives of more than 40 nations convene in Annapolis tomorrow, hoping to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, there will be many reasons for pessimism. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas presides over a fractured people, with Hamas ready to spoil any agreement. Qassam rockets fired from Gaza remind Israelis what a hostile Palestinian state could do from the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is politically vulnerable to extremist figures on the Israeli side who want no concessions.

»

For Bush, It's Not About Being There
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Michael Abramowitz - November 26, 2007 - 12:40pm

The opening of Tuesday's Middle East conference in Annapolis, seven years into the Bush administration, is a reminder of how little the traditional concept of brokering an Arab-Israeli settlement through an ongoing "peace process" has figured into President Bush's foreign policy. Another is Bush's near-absence from the Middle East during his presidency. He has traveled to the region four times, but two of those visits were one-day trips to Iraq, and one was for a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

»

Rice’s Turnabout On Mideast Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Elisabeth Bumiller - November 26, 2007 - 12:37pm

At President Bush’s first National Security Council meeting in January 2001, he announced that he did not want to be drawn into the shattered Middle East peace process, people at the meeting recalled, because he believed that former President Bill Clinton had pushed so hard for an Israeli-Palestinian accord that he made the situation worse.

»

Rice Sets Mid-east Peace Target
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News
November 23, 2007 - 6:39pm

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said the United States will try to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians over the next year. Ms Rice said both sides had agreed to work towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state before US President George W Bush leaves office. She also said Washington hoped such negotiations would be launched at next week's peace conference in Annapolis. Invitations have been issued to Israel, the Palestinians and key Arab states.

»

Analysis: The Possibilities Of Annapolis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News
by Jeremy Bowen - (Opinion) November 22, 2007 - 10:36pm

The other day in Washington a colleague of mine asked the White House press secretary what journalists should call the Middle Eastern event that is about to happen in Annapolis. The press secretary did not offer any advice. An aide suggested "get together". Maybe the aide was being mischievous. But words like summit or peace conference are being discouraged. Expectations for the meeting in Annapolis are being minimised. If you want to be right about the Middle East, it usually pays to be pessimistic.

»

Palestinians Spell Out Their Vision Of The Future In Peace Blueprint
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald Macintyre - November 22, 2007 - 10:34pm

Sweeping security, fiscal and political reforms are promised in the most detailed blueprint for the creation of a Palestinian state yet drawn up by the emergency government headed by Prime Minister Salam Fayad.

»

Likudnik Hawks Work To Undermine Annapolis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Jim Lobe - November 22, 2007 - 10:32pm

Despite near-universal scepticism about the prospects for launching a serious, new Middle East peace process at next week's Israeli-Palestinian summit in Annapolis, a familiar clutch of neo-conservative hawks close to the Likud Party leader, former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, isn't taking any chances.

»

How Rice Can Improve Her Odds
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune
by Daniel Kurtzer - November 22, 2007 - 10:31pm

Condoleezza Rice is playing a high-stakes game of diplomacy. After cautious bets during her first three years as secretary of state, she is going all-in on a summit meeting at Annapolis to launch final status negotiations. Her odds of winning are low, and she knows it. But those odds can start moving in her favor if she draws the right lessons from U.S. diplomatic experience in the Israeli-Arab peace process. Having led a study group on this for the past year, the results of which the United States Institute of Peace will soon publish, we can offer the following tips:

»

If Annapolis Fails, What Then?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Leslie Susser - (Opinion) November 22, 2007 - 10:27pm

Days away from the Annapolis peace parley, the glaring weaknesses of both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders are raising significant questions about the long-term viability of the renewed peace process and the consequences of failure. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who may have wanted to use the conference as a dramatic breakthrough in peacemaking with the Palestinians, finds his hands tied by hawks in his coalition government.

»


American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017